PHX East Valley: Home to Some of the Nation’s Largest New Commercial Developments

PHX East Valley(Oct. 16, 2015) — Comprised of cities of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, Tempe, Apache Junction and the Town of Queen Creek. This region offers an employer-friendly business climate with favorable taxes and regulations. The PHX East Valley features some of the country’s largest commercial developments with a diverse commercial and residential real estate market that meets the demands of Fortune 500 companies, C-level executives, residents and families through business parks, mixed-use developments and master planned communities.

The largest office project in Arizona’s history is underway in the PHX East Valley, State Farm’s $600 million regional headquarters in Marina Heights by Sunbelt Holdings and Ryan Companies, located along Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Ariz. The 20-acre, 2 million-square-foot mixed-use project will house up to 10,000 employees and is a model for development found throughout the Valley.

Tempe’s public transportation network, which includes neighborhood shuttles, buses and light rail, played a major role in State Farm’s decision to build its massive regional headquarters in the city, planned as one of four main State Farm office hubs across the U.S. As a leading submarket in metro Phoenix commercial real estate activity, the north Tempe submarket near Arizona State University has a low office vacancy rate of just 11.2 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

Celebrating a strong performance in economic development, another PHX East Valley Community, Gilbert has recently seen job creation in the form of 5,075 new jobs from 2013-2015 and $683 million in new capital investment. A 250-acre mixed-use development, Rivulon will offer approximately 3 million square feet of Class A office, 500,000 square feet of retail space and hotels. Also located in the thriving Gilbert business cluster is GoDaddy, whose founder and now real estate mogul, Bob Parsons, is capitalizing on the East Valley real estate boom with his most recent purchase of a 17,000-square-foot Tempe property off Mill Avenue with high-rise development potential.

The PHX East Valley region also is one of the fastest growing residential areas for families, with rich master-planned communities such as Eastmark in Mesa by DMB. At 3,200 acres, the community is entitled for 15,000 homes and more than 20 million square feet of non-residential space. It is currently home to over 700 residences.

Apple Inc.’s worldwide cloud computing operations will be located in Mesa near the Eastmark development and will house 150 executive-level Apple employees. In addition to the 150 Apple employees, the facility plans to host 300-500 contract employees and is expected to add up to 500 construction jobs.

Additional significant lease and sales transactions in the market include Wells Fargo Bank, occupying nearly 200,000 square feet at 1150 W. Washington St. in Tempe and 400,000 square feet on Price Road in Chandler, GM IT Innovation Center taking 113,171 square feet on Price Road in Chandler, while developer Douglas Allred Co. is planning an expansion of its Park Place in Chandler from 650,000 square feet to more than 2 million square feet.

“In the past, the East Valley has thrived on real estate development and we are now seeing that industry reignite,” said Roc Arnett, president and CEO of East Valley Partnership. “Thanks to the region’s attractive qualities, leaders in the growing tech and financial industries continue to move their assets to the PHX East Valley, propelling our economy and adding thousands of well paid jobs to our competitive workforce.”

About East Valley Partnership
East Valley Partnership was created in 1982 as a 501(c)(6) nonpartisan coalition of civic, business, educational and political leaders dedicated to the economic development and promotion of the East Valley of Greater Phoenix. The partnership advocates areas such as economic development, education, transportation and infrastructure, arts, behavioral health, and other important areas. For more information, visit www.evp-az.org.